Welding apparatus



March 7, 1939. w MORTON 7 2,149,861

WELDING APPARATUS Filed April 24, 1935 /7 INVENTOR WILL /A M' M0/2TON ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE William Morton, Niagara Falls,

N. Y., assignor,

by mesne assignments, to Union, Carbide and Carbon Corporation, York I Application April 24,

6 Claims.

This invention relates to, welding, and has for its object the provision of apparatus for uniting tog edges of metallic members.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is welding apparatus embodying Fig. 2 is a plan view taken an improved welding ether the contiguous a side elevation of this invention; and at line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

to illustrate more clearly parts of the apparatus. Referring to the drawing, the manually operable welding apparatus which I have shown embodying this invention comprises a welding torch T having a gas mixing handle be supplied through tubes H and In to which may l2, oxygen and acetylene gases. The combustible gas, such as the mixture of oxygen and acetylene, is delivered through a stem I3 to a welding head H to which is secured a suitable welding nozzle or tip M to provide a main welding flame.

and stem l3 are normally The handle I maintained in a substantially horizontal position, and the front end of the stem is inclined downwardly and away from the handle, so that the flame produced by the tip I4 is directed at an acute angle to the' groove l5 formed at the opposed beveled edges of plates I6 and I! that are to be united.

At the point of impingement of the-welding flame on the groove a molten welding puddle P is formed by a welding rod R, the lower end of which contacts the groove I 5 and is also impinged by the welding flame to cause fusion thereof. The

welding rod R is preferably stantially vertical position feedby gravity, and it may groove in any suitable manner. welding rod guide G comprising an opening therethrough, is

welding rod R toward the being pivotally connected head H. The tube l8 may ametrically opposed slots tudinally thereof, and thr maintained in a subso that the rod will be guided toward the As shown, a a tube l8, having provided to guide the groove, such tube l8 at l9 to the welding be provided with diextending longiough these slots and into the opening of. the tube [8 extend the lugs of a semi-circular shaped yoke 2|. When the yoke 2| is in a substantially horizontal position, the ends of the lugs are spaced from the peripheral surface'of the welding rod R; and when the yoke is tilted from this horizontal position the lugs will grip the welding rod. By providing suitable mechanism to tilt and raise the yoke 2| the welding rod can be retracted from the welding puddle P. Such mechanism may comprise a Bourdon'wire control connected to the yoke and 22 having one end thereof extending parallel to the tube It for a short distance, and having the opposite end thereof connec ted to a control mecha corporation of New 1935, Serial No. 11,932

anism 23 mounted on the handle l0. When desired, the control mechanism 23 can be operated to tilt the yoke and raise the same to retract the welding rod; and it may also be operated to permit the yoke to assume a position in a horizontal plane and thus allow the welding rod to be fed by gravity to the welding puddle. The welding rod guide and control mechanism of the character just described are fully disclosed and claimed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,994,700, granted on an application of John M. Halbing and Robert J. Kehl.

The welding head H, the rod guide G, and

handle ID are disposedin the same plane and,

during welding, the apparatus is so positioned that the welding head and rod guide are in alignment with the groove I5 being welded. .The Welding head H and rod guide G are mounted on a carriage C comprising a pair of L-shaped members having their short arms 24 secured to the Welding head H. These short arms "24 are disposed substantially transverse to the plan formed by the welding head H and rod guide G, and the long arms 25' of the L-shaped members are substantially parallel to the handle 10 and extend in a direction opposite to that of the handle. To the extreme ends of the spaced arms 25 are secured heads 26 having extends a cross bar 21 having heads 28 secured to its ends. The heads 28 are provided with threaded openings for receiving the upper threaded ends of runners 29, the lower ends 38 of which are rounded and curved and adapted frictionally' to contact and slide along the work, such as the plates [6 and I1. The runners 29 are maintained in the same plane transverse to the direction of movement of the apparatus, and are angularly movable simultaneously to vary the relative position of the runners on the apparatus. The heads 26 and 28 are provided with coacting milled surfaces, as indicated at 3|. By tightening the lock nuts. 32 the runners 29 can be secured in any desired angular position with respect to the carriage 0. Each of the runners 29 is axially adjustable in its respective head 28, and may be maintained in any desired axial position through lock nuts 33 and 34 adapted to bear against the upper and lower ends of the heads 28.

In accordance with the present invention,-.the apparatus is adapted to be manually moved with respect to the plates I6 and IT in the direction of the arrow A. The frictional sliding-contact. of the runners 29 upon the work tends to steady the apparatus and enables a welder to' obtain close control during welding thus insuring proper openings through which I fusion and penetration of the added weld metal.

v lating the control mechanism,

The runners 29 form a two point support in parallel planes spaced from and on each side of the seam or groove I5, and the handle l0, which is adapted to be grasped by the welder, forms the third point of support for the apparatus. Since the welding head- H is spaced longitudinally of the apparatus from the runners 29, any rocking movementof the handle 1- about the fulcrum provided -by the runners 29 produces a correspondingly smaller movement of the nozzle M to and from the work. This eifects a simple and steady control of the high-temperature welding heat on the welding region in the groove l5.

As the apparatus is .moved relatively to the plates l6 and I1 from the welded portion 35 to the unwelded portion 35 of the groove IS, the

tip of the welding rod is preferably contacting and sliding along the groove. At any time 'during welding'the welding rod can be retracted from the welding puddle P by properly manipuas described above.

To increase the rate of deposition of the weld metal and hence the welding speed, a nozzle or tip 36 is providedto preheat the welding rod R before it reaches the welding region. The tip 36 is smaller than the tip l4 and is also secured to the welding head H. In the present em-- bodiment the tip 36 is substantially parallel to the tip I 4 and disposed above it in thesame plane as the guide G and head H. I

The flame produced by the tip 36 contacts the welding rod R and is deflected downward along the rod toward the welding puddle, P, thereby aiding the main welding flame which also is deflected by the tip of the welding rod and flows downward upon the welding region including the welding puddle P.

Since the Welding rod R intercepts and deflects the main welding flame produced by the tip I 4, the opposed contiguous edges of the plates l6 and I1 in the unwelded portion of the groove l are not properly preheated. To overcome this difliculty and obtain satisfactory welding conditions, two preheating nozzles or tips 31 and 38 are provided to produce heating flames that preheat unwelded portions of the work ahead of the welding rod R and the welding puddle P. The tips 31 and 38 are arranged at an acute angle to the work, in the direction of the unwelded portion of the groove l5, and

are preferably in the same plane transverse .to

thegroove 15. The tips 31 and 38 may be con nected through tubular members 39 and '40 to the welding head H so that all of the tips may be supplied with combustible gas from the same single source of supply. It will be seen that with this arrangement the tips 31 and 38- and tubular members 39 and 40 will embrace the welding rod during a welding operation, as clearly shown tain a unidirectional flow of the combustible gas, the tips 31 and 38 and main welding tip I4 are arranged substantially parallel to each other.

With the above-described construction the line of contact of'the runners 29 upon the work, the point of application of the preheating flames produced by the tips 31 and 38, the point of contactof the welding rod R upon the work, and

the main welding flame produced by the tip I4;

are arranged successively in the order. named.

The preheating flames preheat the contiguous strong and uniformv in character.

and main- .ing point.

edges of the plates I 6 and 11 along the unwelded portion of the groove l5, thereby insuring proper welding conditions to produce welds which are Although the present invention is embodied in a particular form of welding apparatus, it will be apparent that other modifications will occur to those skilledin the art which do not from the spirit and scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Welding apparatus comprising, in combination,-means adapted to deliver a welding jet at depart a welding point on the work; means adapted to deliver a plurality of preheating jets against an unwelded portion of the work on opposite sides of the line of welding ahead of said welding point; means for guiding a welding rod to said welding point between said welding jet and said preheating jets, and a carrier for the three aforesaid means, said carrierincluding means adapted to engage the surface of the work only at a point substantially ahead of the point of impingement of said preheating jets and also adapted to support at least a portion of the weight of the apparatus on the work.

2. Welding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means which delivers the preheating jets is normally so positioned and inclined.

relatively to the work during welding, that the preheating jets are delivered obliquely against and forwardly along unwelded portions of the work as the welding advances; and the workengaging means on the carrier provides a fulcrum along a line of contact crossingsuccessive unwelded portions of the Work, about which fulcrum said carrier and the several means thereon may be rocked to vary both the position of the welding jet and the position of the preheating jets relatively to the work.

3. Welding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means Whichdelivers the plurality of preheating jets comprisesa pair of jet-delivering tips located ahead of the welding point at opposite sides of the line of welding. I

'4. Welding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the work-engaging means on the carrier comprises relatively Widely spaced runners adapted to engage the work on opposite sides of the line of welding, and wherein said preheating means comprises relatively closely spaced tips adapted to be positioned adjacent opposite sides of the line of Welding and adapted to direct preheating jets forwardly along the work and between said runners.

; unwelded portions of the seam to be welded; said members being connected to said apparatus at points spaced from 'each other and axially and angularly adjustable inplanes parallel to the line of welding. V v

6. Welding apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which a welding-rod preheating tip is located between said welding jet means and said workpreheating jet means adapted to deliver a preheating jet on said welding rod above the weld- WILLIAM MORTON. 

